Abstract
Between 1953 and 1956 the twin processes of de-Stalinisation and Soviet—Yugoslav rapprochement opened up the possibility of renewal for the communist states of Eastern Europe. With Khrushchev pressing the East European leaders to undo the injustices of the purge trials, and Tito urging them to adopt the Yugoslav system of workers’ councils, there were moments when it looked as if a very different style of communism might emerge.
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Notes
J. Richter, ‘Re-examining Soviet Policy towards Germany in 1953’, Europe Asia Studies, vol. 45 (1993), pp. 673–7.
M. Fulbrook, Anatomy of a Dictatorship (Oxford, 1995), pp. 180–2;
D. Childs, The GDR: Moscow’s German Ally (London, 1983), p. 31.
F. Vali, Rift and Revolt in Hungary ( Cambridge, Mass., 1961 ), p. 123.
I. Nagy, On Communism: In Defence of the New Course (London, 1957), p. 207ff.
B. Lomax, Hungary 1956 (London, 1976), p. 24; Vali, Rift and Revolt p. 153.
For the limitations of Malenkov’s economic reforms, see A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR (London, 1969), p. 322ff.
V. Dedijer, Novi prilozi za biografiju Josipa Broza Tita vol. III (Belgrade, 1984), p. 550ff
Dedijer, Novi Prilozi vol. III, p. 461; M. Djilas, Rise and Fall (London, 1983), p. 320.
P. Zinner (ed.), National Communism and Popular Revolt in Eastern Europe (New York, 1956), p. 9. Khrushchev confided his problems in overcoming opposition within the Communist Party Presidium to the Yugoslav ambassador Veljko Micunovic; see
V. Micunovic, Moscow Diary (London, 1980), p. 27.
For Tito’s secret links with Gheorghiu-Dej, see Dedijer, Novi Prilozi p. 546; for the Yugoslav glee at the downfall of Chervenkov, see J. E. Brown, Bulgaria under Communist Rule (London, 1970), p. 67.
Vali, Ri and Revolt p. 261ff; M. Molnar, Budapest, 1956(London, 1971), p. 122ff.
Lomax, 1.956 p. 148ff.; Molnar, Budapest pp. 174–5; for Tito’s message to Gerö and Kádár concerning workers’ councils, see G. Ionescu, The Break-up of the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe (London, 1965), p. 76.
Vali, Rift and Revolt, for the reminiscences of participants, see F. Feher and A. Heller, Hungary 1956 Revisited (London, 1983), p. 51. For the Cominform’s assessment of Yugoslav self-management, see For a Lasting Peace, for a Peoples Democracy, 7July 1950, 12 October 1951, 20June 1952, 7 November 1952, and 3 December 1952. While hostile, these accounts are detailed and informative, and mostly written by Romanians, adding credence to the suggestion that the Romanian leadership was not as hostile to Tito as its official stance suggested.
A. Kemp-Welch, ‘Khrushchev’s “Secret Speech” and Polish Politics: the Spring of 1956’, Europe Asia Studies, vol. 48, no. 2 (1996), pp. 181–206.
Cited in K. Syrop, Spring into October (London, 1957), p. 61ff.
T. Toranska, ONI: Stalin’s Polish Puppets (London, 1987), p. 183;
J. E Brown, The New Eastern Europe: The Khrushchev Era and After (London, 1966), pp. 53–4; Reyman and Singer, ‘Origins’, p. 218.
R. A. Remington, The Warsaw Pact (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), p. 18. The text of the Warsaw Pact is given in Keesings Contemporary Archives p. 14251.
G. Ionescu, Communism in Romania: 1944–62 (Oxford, 1964), pp. 268, 272.
J. D. Bell, The Bulgarian Communist Party from Blagoev to Zhivkov (Stanford, Cal., 1986), p. 115ff. A very brief flowering of the liberal press in Czechoslovakia was confined to the spring of 1956;
see E. L. Kaplan, Winter into Spring: The Czechoslovak Press and the Reform Movement, 1963–8 (New York, 1977), p. 28ff.
Djilas’ article appeared in the New York socialist paper The New Leader. Extracts are reproduced in M. Lasky (ed.), The Hungarian Revolution: A White Book (London, 1957), p. 270.
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© 1998 Geoffrey Swain and Nigel Swain
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Swain, G., Swain, N. (1998). 1956: Communism Renewed?. In: Eastern Europe Since 1945. The Making of the Modern World. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27069-9_5
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